rik_allen

I was mooching round the Natural History museum this weekend for the show, and was diappointed with the selections in some ways. I don't know if that was due to getting more exposure to quality work over the last few years, but the 1999 show still stands out for me as a high point.

 

Be interesting to compare names between some of the underwater work and the guys that worked on "Blue Planet". Don't know if that has made it stateside yet, but as a BBC documentary in the spirit of "Living Planet" but underwater. Awesome. I suspect the Blue Whale shots from the WPotY were shot from teh same microlights commisioned for the TV series, for example.

Another problem I found in Malaysia recently was the dappled sunlight causing huge variation in exposure on some shots. Next time I'll try a lower contrast film, (NPH probabaly - the comment about low light is spot on.). I guess flash would help to even this out, and if you are planning macro of insects, it will help a bunch as well.

 

Additionally, animal activity is at it's peak around sunrise/sunset - makes the light that much lower as well - and the mosquitos are indeed vicious.

Note that the Sigma (and I think Tamron) teleconverters are sort of inbetween the canon and the kenko for quality, and cost. The sigma also has a protruding front element, so won't fit. Don't know about the tamron.

 

As far as I can tell the only converters that will fit this sort of zoom lenses are the ones that are of lesser quality, and you need all the quality you can get extending a zoom.

You could browse around what the inners of the <a href = "http://flood.nhm.ac.uk/cgi-bin/wildwin/2000/htdocs/"> "wildlife photographer of the year"</a> use.

Using a fuji disposable underwater camera - which is rated at 4m, I found no imposion down to about 10 meters. However, the camera stopped working since the shutter release failed to pop up against the water pressure below about 8 meters. For snorkling this probabally isn't a problem (I can't take _that_ many shots at 10 meters on one breath....).

Thanks for the answers.

 

For some clarification - I'm UK based (south of London), and watching the weather forcasts with some trepidation.

 

I'm pretty used to mountain conditions in North Wales in winter, and Nepal, and have some very experienced collegues to stop me making stupid mistakes in avalanche areas.

 

I'll add to the mix my 19-35mm zoom - I've been avoiding it due to previous problems with flare but I can't afford to upgrade to a prime right now. I suppose that since the chance of direct sunlight up there is not so high, the flare will be controllable.

Does anyone have any suggestions for oppertunities with a camera in

the highlands of Scotland in Feb? I guess I'll be mostly concerned

with staying alive and comfortable on the peaks, but I'd like to be

prepared to make the most of the experience photographically if

possible.

 

My normal rig is mid range Canon kit, 100/2.0, 300/4.0, 50/1.8 etc,

but I'm going to have to compromise once the ice axe and crampons are

taking up space in the sack.

Please tell Frank Loy.

 

Perhaps Fatali planted a tree somewhere to soak up the damage he caused. That vidicates him doesn't it?

Slightly off topic, but...

 

The best I've managed so far was loosing a bag of exposed film taken over the course of 14 days walking in Nepal. The best guess I had was that it was two days walk back up trail, where we'd cleared out of the lodgings at 4am to get sunrise over Dhaulagiri (from Poon hill at Ghoropani).

 

We sent a guide back up trail to see what he could find (feeling guilty as hell, but knowing what took us two days walk would probabaly only be a quick trot for him.) No luck.

 

Two weeks after returning to the UK, I got an email from the company that has sorted out out trek, having found the film. Another porter had been passing the village and had tracked them down for me (seems I'd left them at the top of the hill - sorting through a rucksac in near darkness in long grass it is easy to lose a small black bag) two days from the nearest road. It took another 3 weeks to get them hand carried back to the UK, but man was I grateful.

 

Public thanks go out to himalayan hilltreks (BRIAN@hilltrek.mos.com.np) for a great service, set up by email from the UK at a fraction of the cost of a UK/US arranged trip.

 

Sorry for the digression.

I'd suggest that polarising filters are not helpful at high altitude. The problem is more keeping the sky from rendering as black when you have snow in the foreground, rather than the normal problem of too white a sky. Low contrast films sound a good plan though.

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See <a href="http://www.photo.net/photodb/photo.tcl?photo_id=88439">

http://www.photo.net/photodb/photo.tcl?photo_id=88439</a> for an illustration of the problem. Shot on velvia with no polarizing filter on the Thorung La pass in Nepal - altitude 5400 meters, so only about 600m higher than Mont Blanc.

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With that much light around, shutter speeds were fast, apertures were small, and tripods weighed way too much as you are breaking trail through fresh snow with no oxygen.

RainX causes an increase in surface tension, causing rain to fly off

the windscreen of the car (thats the theory, seems to work for some people in some cars in some conditions - I like it). On a camera lens there is not the wind needed to clear the water off, so you just get droplets forming, which degrade the image.

 

There is another product (fogX) that reduces surface tension, causing the water to form a uniform film. It doesn't keep the glass dry, but it does prevent the individual droplets forming which is what causes the problem. Works great on bathroom mirrors, and I suspect on lenses or better, filters.

I havn't tried his field guide yet, but from reading his closeup and landscape books, I've got the field pending from amazon. Good advice, and beautiful photos to illustrate the points he makes. Really makes you want to get out there and play.

I have used walking poles with camera mounts on top for treking. I plan to make a bracket that both could screw into with a ball socket mount on top giving 2/3 of a tripod for a little better stability. I'm not sure how many stops extra shutter speed you could get out of this setup though.

Not directly relevant, but if you go and visit him again for christmas, the butterflies will be roosting at Santa Cruz (natrual arches?), and the elephant seals should be at Ano Nuevo just up the coast. You need to book for the walk out to the seals.

 

Big Sur, to the south of Santa Cruz, is wonderful - the coast is almost as majestic as parts of Britain. Evenings for that I guess.